MARC Record from harvard_bibliographic_metadata

LEADER: 02379cam a22003374a 4500
001 012695062-8
005 20110609100534.0
008 101228s2011 nyuabcf b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2010054054
020 $a9780393061260 (hardcover)
035 0 $aocn668194893
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dMH-L
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aHE2751$b.W55 2011
082 00 $a385.0973/09034$222
100 1 $aWhite, Richard,$d1947-
245 10 $aRailroaded :$bthe transcontinentals and the making of modern America /$cRichard White.
250 $a1st ed.
260 $aNew York :$bNorton,$cc2011.
300 $axxxix, 660 p., 8 p. of plates :$bill., maps, port. ;$c25 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 $aIntroduction -- Genesis -- Annus horribilis : 1873 -- Friends -- Spatial politics -- Kilkenny cats -- Men in octopus suits -- Working men -- Looking backward -- Collapse -- Strike -- Creative destruction -- Epilogue -- Conclusion.
520 $aThis work is a history of the transcontinental railroads and how they transformed America in the decades after the Civil War. The transcontinental railroads of the late nineteenth century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the U.S. economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life. Their discriminatory rates sparked broad opposition and a new antimonopoly politics. With characteristic originality, range, and authority, Richard White shows the transcontinentals to be pivotal actors in the making of modern America. But the triumphal myths of the golden spike, robber barons larger than life, and an innovative capitalism all die here. Instead we have a new vision of the Gilded Age, often darkly funny, that shows history to be rooted in failure as well as success.
650 0 $aRailroads$zUnited States$xHistory$y19th century.
650 0 $aLand settlement$zUnited States$xHistory$y19th century.
650 0 $aNational characteristics, American.
655 7 $aHistory.$2fast
899 $a430_586760
899 $a415_624061
988 $a20110223
906 $0DLC